God's Friends - October 11, 2009 at Camp Galilee for Trinity Church Reno Men's Retreat

Mark 10:17-31

Contrary to popular interpretations the Gospel is not about condemning the rich or those of us who have a few worldly possessions. The Gospel I think is asking all of us to think about what we treasure? This question is very closely related to another question -- Are these treasures ours or are they God’s? Our answers to these two questions suggest the key to living a different response than the rich young man who went away sad. Hopefully we will not leave from this time together in any way sad!

The focus of the Gospel is not that we go and sell all our possessions, give all our money to the poor and live as beggars. Such a choice overvalues poverty and diminishes the stewardship opportunity of privilege. At the same time we do need to ask some questions about what we treasure. My sense is that we are all men who cherish our spouse, our families and Trinity Church. Loving spouses, healthy families, good friends and vibrant churches are indeed good things for us to cherish too.

The emphasis of the Gospel goes a little bit further through Jesus’ question to the rich young man. My sense is that there is a little humor in Jesus’ response when he says, “don’t call me good teacher”. I sense him saying don’t try to snow me. I had a supervisor at Price Waterhouse who often said to me, “Joe don’t try to snow the snowman.” The rich young man seems to be trying to snow Jesus.

I read the Gospel as Jesus’ way of upping the ante. I think Jesus is poking fun at the young man. Jesus is asking if his treasure is only for himself or is it for others. Jesus contrasts the rich young man’s small circle of people he cherishes with Jesus’ larger circle of friends who are in communion with God. Jesus is asking us to put our treasure in service of this larger circle of God’s friends.

As men I think as a culture we are vulnerable to believe that our smarts, self-discipline and hard work have led to our privileges. So we could say, “we have earned what we have and it is ours”. Yet if we are not careful this way of thinking can lead to a defensive posture that the rich young man exhibits in this story. I can empathize with him. I sold all my possessions twice when I entered Roman Catholic seminaries and I can assure you that I did not have any better insight to this Gospel when I gave up my job, apartment and other worldly privileges and freedom.

There is another way to understand this Gospel though. It is a very different way of thinking to see all that we have received as a gift from God. To see that all we have received coming from God does not diminish our intellectual gifs, our self-discipline or even our masculine ingenuity. If all we treasure originated with God as gift to us than our discernment, indeed the rich young man’s discernment is about stewardship.

Stewardship is far more than deciding how much to pledge each year or how to be philanthropic in the greater community. Stewardship means that we acknowledge that all the gifts we have received including all of our possessions come from God’s grace. Stewardship means no longer living for our small circle of cherished ones but rather for the larger circle. Our challenge is recognizing the faces of people in need in the larger circle as our friends in communion with God.

A year ago working one night at Family Promise, I had a hard time making conversation with our guests. It was much easier for me to serve them than to call them by their name and talk about their circumstances. In future evenings it was a bit easier, but it was still a challenge for me. I have worked with the homeless before giving food through soup kitchens, staying overnight in shelters and giving to organizations that provide for the needs of the homeless. But as I look back on these ministries I see now the way I kept a safe distance.

What’s different for me now is that the homeless I am meeting in my work with Ted and others have names and stories. The homeless have ceased to be for me untouchable. I am in closer proximity. My friend Dan came with us on the street this week and several hours later he was thinking about Francis, an African-American woman who could have been anybody’s grandmother. Dan said he felt less sorry for the men but Francis melted his heart and he saw through her homelessness the way he was related to her through common humanity and communion with God.

As I read this Gospel and reflect on the work we have done, as street priests I think Jesus’ message is that we exercise stewardship over our treasures. This means recognizing God’s friends and using our judgment to make choices about how we care.

Not all of us are called to be Street Priests or even to work with Family Promise, just as Jesus is not asking all to sell all they have and move to the streets.

The Gospel does call all of us out of our small circle of friends and family with whom we share our treasures into relationship with God’s larger circle of friends.

The Gospel calls all of us out of defensive protection of our hard earned treasures to see God’s gracious hand serving our need through bestowing us with intellectual and financial gifts. In the second reading we heard that in Jesus we have one who is sympathetic to our needs.

The rich young man was not sympathetic to the needs of the poor rather he placed his sole treasure in his possessions. The Gospel calls all of us to be sympathetic to the needs of others in our community who may have not had our privileges or often through their one error in judgment have cost them the possibility of changing their plight.

Jesus called the young man’s bluff, but deeply embedded in that bluff is calling this man as well as all of us to be stewards of our treasures for a larger circle of friends.

The young man cherished his possessions above all else. Yet if he placed his treasure in being in communion with God then he would have approached Jesus differently. Indeed he would not have been self-righteously asking Jesus trick questions rather his focus would have been caring for a larger community of need than his own. As we leave this time of community and fellowship let us continue to be attentive to God’s friends in ways that expand the smaller circles we live so that our stewardship is about relationship not just providing service.